Sunday, July 28, 2013

Russian Spacecraft Delivers Spacesuit Repair Kit to International Space Station | Space.com

An unmanned Russian spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station Saturday (July 27) bearing food, supplies and a repair kit for a malfunctioning spacesuit on the orbiting outpost. - See more at: http://www.space.com/22145-russian-rogress-space-station-docking.html#sthash.BOXAJXOo.dpuf

The cargo ship is loaded with nearly 3 tons (2.7 tonnes) of food, fuel, hardware and science experiment equipment for the six-person crew of the station's Expedition 36 mission. Among its cargo is a set of tools intended to help the astronauts investigate and patch up the spacesuit that malfunctioned during a July 16 spacewalk outside the orbiting laboratory.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Image of the Day: A View of Spaceship Earth from Saturn

Image of the Day: A View of Spaceship Earth from Saturn
Earth, which is 898 million miles (1.44 billion kilometers) away in this image, appears as a blue dot at center right; the moon can be seen as a fainter protrusion off its right side.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

NASA Hubble Finds a True Blue Planet | NASA

NASA Hubble Finds a True Blue Planet | NASA
Earlier observations have reported evidence for scattering of blue light on the planet. The latest Hubble observation confirms the evidence.
If seen directly, this planet would look like a deep blue dot, reminiscent of Earth's color as seen from space. That is where the comparison ends.
On this turbulent alien world, the daytime temperature is nearly 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and it possibly rains glass -- sideways -- in howling, 4,500-mph winds. The cobalt blue color comes not from the reflection of a tropical ocean as it does on Earth, but rather a hazy, blow-torched atmosphere containing high clouds laced with silicate particles. Silicates condensing in the heat could form very small drops of glass that scatter blue light more than red light.
Hubble and other observatories have made intensive studies of HD 189733b and found its atmosphere to be changeable and exotic.
HD 189733b is among a bizarre class of planets called hot Jupiters, which orbit precariously close to their parent stars. The observations yield new insights into the chemical composition and cloud structure of the entire class.

Monday, July 08, 2013

Explosion in Number of Potentially Habitable Worlds

Explosion in Number of Potentially Habitable Worlds
The number of potentially habitable worlds circling red dwarf stars—the most abundant type of star in our Milky Way galaxy—may have just doubled to 60 billion, a new study suggests.
So what's new? Researchers found that the atmospheric circulation and cloud cover on these exoplanets meant these worlds could orbit their stars more closely than previously thought—expanding the habitable zone around red dwarf stars.

Saturday, July 06, 2013

Two Alien Planets With 'Endless Oceans' --"Unlike anything in our Solar System"

Two Alien Planets With 'Endless Oceans' --"Unlike anything in our Solar System"

“These planets are unlike anything in our solar system. They have endless oceans,” said lead author Lisa Kaltenegger of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the CfA. “There may be life there, but could it be technology-based like ours? Life on these worlds would be under water with no easy access to metals, to electricity, or fire for metallurgy. Nonetheless, these worlds will still be beautiful, blue planets circling an orange star — and maybe life’s inventiveness to get to a technology stage will surprise us.”
These two "Water World" planets orbit the star Kepler-62. This five-planet system has two worlds in the habitable zone — the distance from their star at which they receive enough light and warmth that liquid water could theoretically exist on their surfaces. Modeling by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) suggests that both planets are water worlds, their surfaces completely covered by a global ocean with no land in sight. Kepler-62 is a type K star slightly smaller and cooler than our sun. The two water worlds, designated Kepler-62e and -62f, orbit the star every 122 and 267 days, respectively.
They were found by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, which detects planets that transit, or cross the face of, their host star. Measuring a transit tells astronomers the size of the planet relative to its star.
Kepler-62e is 60 percent larger than Earth, while Kepler-62f is about 40 percent larger, making both of them “super-Earths.” They are too small for their masses to be measured, but astronomers expect them to be composed of rock and water, without a significant gaseous envelope.
As the warmer of the two worlds, Kepler-62e would have a bit more clouds than Earth, according to computer models. More distant Kepler-62f would need the greenhouse effect from plenty of carbon dioxide to warm it enough to host an ocean. Otherwise, it might become an ice-covered snowball.
“Kepler-62e probably has a very cloudy sky and is warm and humid all the way to the polar regions. Kepler-62f would be cooler, but still potentially life-friendly,” said Harvard astronomer and co-author Dimitar Sasselov.
“The good news is — the two would exhibit distinctly different colors and make our search for signatures of life easier on such planets in the near future,” he added.
The discovery raises the intriguing possibility that some star in our galaxy might be circled by two Earth-like worlds — planets with oceans and continents, where technologically advanced life could develop.
“Imagine looking through a telescope to see another world with life just a few million miles from your own. Or, having the capability to travel between them on a regular basis. I can’t think of a more powerful motivation to become a space-faring society,” said Sasselov.
Kaltenegger and Sasselov’s research has been accepted for publication in

Friday, July 05, 2013

Lords of the Ring Nebula: Stargazers' Photo Completes Cosmic Quest | Space.com

Lords of the Ring Nebula: Stargazers' Photo Completes Cosmic Quest |
Space.com
The Ring Nebula, also known as Messier 57 or NGC 6720, appears to look like a massive circle due to our perspective on Earth. André van der Hoeven, Terry Hancock, Fred Herrmann, Mike van den Berg and Mathijn Ippel logged in a combined 104 hours of exposure time to take this photo. The image was released to SPACE.com on June 28, 2013.
CREDIT: André van der Hoeven, Terry Hancock, Fred Herrmann, Mike van den Berg and Mathijn Ippel

View full size image

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

New Night Sky Timelapse Video: Stars and Storms Vie for Attention

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Cosmology: The Timeline of Everything We Know - From Quarks to Quasars

Image: Gary S Chapman/Photographer (Source)

First would be that prior to the big bang it is possible there was no previous era. Matter, energy, space and time began abruptly. Another posits that of Quantum emergence – space and time develop out of a primeval state describe by a quantum theory of gravity. Then there is the landscape multiverse of string theory – due to differences of quantum tunneling and quantum fluctuations between different energy states, this theory reorganizes a multiverse of universes in a new type of field ordered from most energetic to least energetic. As this new type of postulated field (called inflation) decays it releases the remainder of its energy and “buds” off the eternal, infinite space and expands rapidly. And lastly the cyclic universe, were the big bang is just the latest in the continual expansion, collapse and renewed expansion of space and time. The beginning is not really the beginning at all, only the latest stage in a continuing cycle.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Quantum gravity takes singularity out of black holes - space - 29 May 2013 - New Scientist

Falling into a black hole may not be as final as it seems. Apply a quantum theory of gravity to these bizarre objects and the all-crushing singularity at their core disappears.

In its place is something that looks a lot like an entry point to another universe. Most immediately, that could help resolve the nagging information loss paradox that dogs black holes.

Though no human is likely to fall into a black hole anytime soon, imagining what would happen if they did is a great way to probe some of the biggest mysteries in the universe. Most recently this has led to something known as the black hole firewall paradox – but black holes have long been a source of cosmic puzzles.

According to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, if a black hole swallows you, your chances of survival are nil. You'll first be torn apart by the black hole's tidal forces, a process whimsically named spaghettification.

Eventually, you'll reach the singularity, where the gravitational field is infinitely strong. At that point, you'll be crushed to an infinite density. Unfortunately, general relativity provides no basis for working out what happens next. "When you reach the singularity in general relativity, physics just stops, the equations break down," says Abhay Ashtekar of Pennsylvania State University.

The same problem crops up when trying to explain the big bang, which is thought to have started with a singularity. So in 2006, Ashtekar and colleagues applied loop quantum gravity to the birth of the universe. LQG combines general relativity with quantum mechanics and defines space-time as a web of indivisible chunks of about 10^-35 metres in size. The team found that as they rewound time in an LQG universe, they reached the big bang, but no singularity – instead they crossed a "quantum bridge" into another older universe. This is the basis for the "big bounce" theory of our universe's origins.

Information paradox

Now Jorge Pullin at Louisiana State University and Rodolfo Gambini at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay, have applied LQG on a much smaller scale – to an individual black hole – in the hope of removing that singularity too. To simplify things, the pair applied the equations of LQG to a model of a spherically symmetrical, non-rotating "Schwarzschild" black hole.

In this new model, the gravitational field still increases as you near the black hole's core. But unlike previous models, this doesn't end in a singularity. Instead gravity eventually reduces, as if you've come out the other end of the black hole and landed either in another region of our universe, or another universe altogether. Despite only holding for a simple model of a black hole, the researchers – and Ashtekar – believe the theory may banish singularities from real black holes too.

That would mean that black holes can serve as portals to other universes. While other theories, not to mention some works of science fiction, have suggested this, the trouble was that nothing could pass through the portal because of the singularity. The removal of the singularity is unlikely to be of immediate practical use, but it could help with at least one of the paradoxes surrounding black holes, the information loss problem.

A black hole soaks up information along with the matter it swallows, but black holes are also supposed to evaporate over time. That would cause the information to disappear forever, defying quantum theory. But if a black hole has no singularity, then the information needn't be lost – it may just tunnel its way through to another universe. "Information doesn't disappear, it leaks out," says Pullin.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

The US military's new agony beam weapon - health - 16 May 2013 - New Scientist

Sign in to read: Pain ray: The US military's new agony beam weapon - health - 16 May 2013 - New Scientist
THE pain, when it comes, is unbearable. At first it's comparable to a hairdryer blast on the skin. But within a couple of seconds, most of the body surface feels roasted to an excruciating degree. Nobody has ever resisted it: the deep-rooted instinct to writhe and escape is too strong.
The source of this pain is an entirely new type of weapon, originally developed in secret by the US military – and now ready for use. It is a genuine pain ray, designed to subdue people in war zones, prisons and riots. Its name is Active Denial. In the last decade, no other non-lethal weapon has had as much research and testing, and some $120 million has already been spent on development in the US.
Many want to shelve this pain ray before it is fired for real but the argument is far from cut and dried. Active Denial's supporters ...

Monday, May 13, 2013

Dark energy is still the greatest cosmic mystery - physics-math - 13 May 2013 - New Scientist

Dark energy is still the greatest cosmic mystery - physics-math - 13 May 2013 - New Scientist

A new field, a new force, the power of our own ignorance? It’s two-thirds of the cosmos but it just keeps us guessing

IT IS 15 head-scratching years since we noticed that some mysterious agent is pushing the universe apart. We still don't know what it is. It is everywhere and we can't see it. It makes up more than two-thirds of the universe, but we have no idea where it comes from or what it is made of. "Nature has not been ready to give us any clues yet," says Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

We do at least have a name for this most enigmatic of beasts: dark energy. Now the hunt for it is really on. Later this year, astronomers will begin a new sky survey to look for signs of the stuff among exploding stars and ancient galaxy clusters. A pack of space missions and gigantic Earth-based telescopes will soon join the chase. Meanwhile, some physicists are pursuing an unorthodox idea: that we might snare dark energy in the lab.

As yet, our knowledge of the quarry is desperately scarce. It is limited to perhaps three things. First, dark energy pushes. We first noted that in 1998, in the unexpected dimness of certain supernova explosions which told us they were further away than we expected. Space seems at some point to have begun expanding faster, as if driven outwards by a repulsive force acting against the attractive gravity of matter.

Second, there is a lot of the stuff. The motion and clustering of galaxies tells us how much matter is abroad in the universe, while the cosmic microwave background radiation emitted 380,000 years after the big bang allows us to work out the total density of matter plus energy. This second number is much bigger. According to the latest data, including microwave observations from the European Space Agency's Planck satellite, about 68 per cent of the universe is in some non-material, energetic, pushy form. That works out at about 1 joule per cubic kilometre of space.

Third, dark energy makes excellent fuel for the creative minds of physicists. They see it in hundreds of different and fantastical forms.

The tamest of these is the cosmological constant, and even that is a wild thing. It is an energy density inherent to space, which within Einstein's general theory of relativity creates a repulsive gravity. As space expands there is more and more of the stuff, making its repulsion stronger relative to the fading gravity of the universe's increasingly scattered matter. Particle physics even seems to provide an origin for it, in virtual particles that appear and disappear in the bubbling, uncertain quantum vacuum. The trouble is these particles have far too much energy – in the simplest calculation, about 10¹²⁰ joules per cubic kilometre.

Thursday, May 02, 2013

Wet and wild views from the Herschel space telescope

Wet and wild views from the Herschel space telescope
Herschel, the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space, has imaged its last. Take a tour of some of its most impressive finds, from tangles of glowing gas to water-soaked worlds – and even a hole in space.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Introduction: Nanotechnology - tech - 04 September 2006 - New Scientist

Introduction: Nanotechnology

11:27 04 September 2006 by John Pickrell
For similar stories, visit the Nanotechnology Topic Guide

Imagine a world where microscopic medical implants patrol our arteries, diagnosing ailments and fighting disease; where military battle-suits deflect explosions; where computer chips are no bigger than specks of dust; and where clouds of miniature space probes transmit data from the atmospheres of Mars or Titan.

Many incredible claims have been made about the future's nanotechnological applications, but what exactly does nano mean, and why has controversy plagued this emerging technology?

Nanotechnology is science and engineering at the scale of atoms and molecules. It is the manipulation and use of materials and devices so tiny that nothing can be built any smaller.

How small is small?

Nanomaterials are typically between 0.1 and 100 nanometres (nm) in size - with 1 nm being equivalent to one billionth of a metre (10^-9 m).

This is the scale at which the basic functions of the biological world operate - and materials of this size display unusual physical and chemical properties. These profoundly different properties are due to an increase in surface area compared to volume as particles get smaller - and also the grip of weird quantum effects at the atomic scale.

If 1 nanometre was roughly the width of a pinhead, then 1 metre on this scale would stretch the entire distance from Washington, DC to Atlanta - around 1000 kilometres. But a pinhead is actually one million nanometres wide. Most atoms are 0.1 to 0.2 nm wide, strands of DNA around 2 nm wide, red blood cells are around 7000 nm in diameter, while human hairs are typically 80,000 nm across.

Unwittingly, people have made use of some unusual properties of materials at the nanoscale for centuries. Tiny particles of gold for example, can appear red or green - a property that has been used to colour stained glass windows for over 1000 years.

Nanotechnology is found elsewhere today in products ranging from nanometre-thick films on "self-cleaning" windows to pigments in sunscreens and lipsticks.

Friday, April 19, 2013

"Two Water Worlds Unlike Anything in Our Solar System" --Found Orbiting a Kepler-Mission Star

"Two Water Worlds Unlike Anything in Our Solar System" --Found Orbiting a Kepler-Mission Star
Astronomers have a "Water World" planetary system orbiting the star Kepler-62. This five-planet system has two worlds in the habitable zone — the distance from their star at which they receive enough light and warmth that liquid water could theoretically exist on their surfaces. Modeling by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) suggests that both planets are water worlds, their surfaces completely covered by a global ocean with no land in sight.
“These planets are unlike anything in our solar system. They have endless oceans,” said lead author Lisa Kaltenegger of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the CfA. “There may be life there, but could it be technology-based like ours? Life on these worlds would be under water with no easy access to metals, to electricity, or fire for metallurgy. Nonetheless, these worlds will still be beautiful, blue planets circling an orange star — and maybe life’s inventiveness to get to a technology stage will surprise us.”